


forever and please don't go

by smithens



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Bad Weather, Cuddling & Snuggling, M/M, Sleepovers, Stupid 1920s Nicknames, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26625547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smithens/pseuds/smithens
Summary: A storm rolls in. Richard gets stuck in Downton.
Relationships: Thomas Barrow/Richard Ellis
Comments: 12
Kudos: 98





	forever and please don't go

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Julesss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Julesss/gifts).



> title from [she keeps me warm by mary lambert](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG4nRI9Wmzk)
> 
> written to fill prompt "holding their hands when they are shaking"

“Figures the day I finally make it up is the day this happens,” Richard says. 

“Guess you’re stuck here,” Thomas replies sweetly, draping a blanket round his shoulders, nuzzling the side of his face. If he weren’t frozen to the bone the way he is Richard supposes he could melt. “Pity.” Then he drapes _himself_ around Richard, chest to his back, arms beneath his, legs around his hips; he presses his lips to his neck and kisses with his mouth closed… then breathes, in and out. He grabs his hands, at which point in time Richard realises he hasn’t stopped shivering; his teeth are still chattering. “You are an _icicle_ , Mr Ellis.”

Thunder roars. The lamp flickers.

That’d be spectacular, if the electricity went out…

“Dunno if I’ve ever been in an empty great house,” muses Richard. He’s always been with a large party, to his memory… Their Majesties are always entertaining, and even when they’re not they’ve got tens of staff and plenty of Lords-and-Ladies in waiting. “You understand I’d be far more concerned if the principals were around.”

“You’ve made _that_ clear enough,” Thomas says against his neck. He squeezes his hands again, then lets go… only to start furiously rubbing his own together. Richard can guess at what will follow, and feels a swell of affection in his chest. “But you probably don’t need to be concerned at all… Kept my job through worse.”

He has, Richard knows. 

“Still, I’ve got a sense the Earl might mind if he knew his butler – ”

“ _The Earl_ would be very happy for his butler, I suspect, and then he’d make his valet very uncomfortable by telling him all about it.” Richard raises his eyebrows. Even from behind Thomas apparently understands his reaction. “…I overhear Bates and Anna talking. Sometimes.”

“This place is a madhouse.”

“Not at the moment it isn’t,” Thomas purrs in his ear. “At the moment ‘sjust you and me up here, and – ”

“Haven’t you got two hall-boys?”

“Lower five don’t live in; they’re all in the village. The royal visit was a special occasion.”

It’s a new world everywhere but the Royal Household. Sometimes Richard worries he’ll have to play catch up, once he’s retired, and that he’ll never quite be able to get a lead again…

“Enough about everybody-bloody-else, Dickie,” his hands are on his again, warmer now than they were before, and even though his hair’s still soaked and he feels as if he’ll never be able to shake the chill in the rest of him it’s a step in the right direction. “I’ve got you for at least one more night” ( _at least_ ) “ than I’ve planned,” once more in that soft, insistent, ever-arousing tone of his, “and I intend…” more kisses to his neck, and then lower, nudging the blanket down til it’s nearly fallen off but making up for it with the warmth of his lips, “to use it.”

“I’m still cold,” Richard says, in his own version of that tone. 

But he isn’t, he finds, still shivering.

“You won’t be for long, if I can help it.”

**Author's Note:**

> this was [originally posted on my tumblr here](https://combeferre.tumblr.com/post/626654166943711232/holding-their-hands-when-they-are-shaking)


End file.
